1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a composite photograph creation system and composite photograph creation apparatus, and more particularly, to a composite photograph creation system and composite photograph creation apparatus that create a composite photograph in which a user image captured by a user is pasted at a prescribed position of a template image.
2. Background Art
Digital cameras that electrically record images have a benefit in that they allow the shot image to be processed readily, with respect to silver halide-based film cameras. In order to create a composite photograph in which an image captured by a digital camera is combined with a prescribed template, various types of services have been proposed which make use of this benefit of easy processability.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-168187 discloses a system for creating one original image by selecting a plurality of desired images from amongst images captured by a digital camera, and pasting this selected plurality of images onto a prescribed template. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-22929 and 2004-178163 disclose methods whereby a decorative frame is combined with a portrait image to create a composite image that is then printed. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-210340 discloses a method whereby a portion relating to a person is extracted from an image, and that extracted image is combined with a different background, such as a computer graphics image, a landscape image, or the like.
However, those composite photograph creation systems require knowledge of image synthesis and are complicated and troublesome to operate. Therefore, it is difficult that those systems are used freely and easily by users.